20th-century American lawyers

Mary Virginia Orozco was California’s first Latina female lawyer. She was also the first Latina to graduate from Loyola Law School.
She was born on September 24, 1928, in Whittier, California. Her parents were adamant that their children received a proper education. As an example, since Orozco’s parents were not property owners, they asked their landlord to obtain library cards for their children from the Whittier Public Library.
Orozco completed her undergraduate studies in psychology and sociology at the California State University, Los Angeles before attending Loyola Law School. Orozco worked full-time to support her immediate family while attending.
She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1962 as the state’s first Latina lawyer. With the Spanish-speaking community as her major focus, Orozco set out to establish a legal practice that specialized in family, civil and criminal law. She eventually established the law firm Orozco & Orozco with her twin brother Hector. Orozco faced both racial and sex discrimination while practicing in the California courtrooms. In 1962, Orozco was a founder of the Mexican American Bar Association (MABA) in Los Angeles, and was a founding member for the Latina Lawyers Bar Association. She retired from practicing law in 1987.
Orozco died on June 5, 2019.

John Jacob "Jay" Rhodes III (September 8, 1943 – January 20, 2011) was a Republican Representative from Arizona's 1st congressional district.

Margarete Berent (July 9, 1887, in Berlin – June 23, 1965, in New York), also known as Margareth Berent or Grete Berent in the United States, was the first woman lawyer in Prussia. She was the co-founder of the Association of Women Jurists and Association of German Women Academicians. As a Jew, she suffered from persecution during the Nazi Regime and fled via Switzerland, Italy, and Chile to the United States, where she finally arrived in 1940. After studying American law, she opened her second own law firm, now in the US, in 1951.

Charles Julius Solomon (March 12, 1906 – May 1, 1975) was an American bridge player, administrator, writer, and sponsor. He was Inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2000.

James Nicholas Counter III (1940–2009) was an American labor attorney, who served as the long-standing president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and as chief negotiator for the major studios who squared off against Hollywood's writers during a 100-day strike in 2008. Counter died on November 6, 2009, at the age of sixty-nine. He was survived by a son, Nicholas; a daughter, Samantha, and her husband, producer and screenwriter Alex Kurtzman; and a grandson, Jack.

Donald Jay Irwin (September 7, 1926 – July 7, 2013) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut's 4th district, Connecticut State Treasurer and mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut.

David Thomas Lewis (April 25, 1912 – September 28, 1983) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Andrew Rowan Summers (December 15, 1912– March 1968) was an American folk singer and player of the Appalachian dulcimer. He is credited with a large role in preserving Appalachian music from extinction. Summers was among the earliest musicians to draw attention to the dulcimer to a wider audience outside the Appalachians, with John Jacob Niles being one of the few earlier.Summers was born in Abingdon, Virginia in 1912, and enrolled in the University of Virginia in 1930. Despite his interest in music, he ended up getting a degree in law, working as an attorney and later teaching at New York University.

Spottswood William Robinson III (July 26, 1916 – October 11, 1998) was an American civil rights lawyer, jurist, and educator who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1966 to 1989. He previously served as a U.S. district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 1964 to 1966.

Samuel Wilbert Tucker (June 18, 1913 – October 19, 1990) was an American lawyer and a cooperating attorney with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His civil rights career began as he organized a 1939 sit-in at the then-segregated Alexandria, Virginia public library. A partner in the Richmond, Virginia, firm of Hill, Tucker and Marsh (formerly Hill, Martin and Robinson), Tucker argued and won several civil rights cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, including Green v. County School Board of New Kent County which, according to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights In America, "did more to advance school integration than any other Supreme Court decision since Brown."